REVIEW ARTICLE

A short overview of
MRI artefacts
L J Erasmus
MB ChB

D Hurter
MB ChB

M Naud
MB ChB

H G Kritzinger
MB ChB
Department of Diagnostic Radiology
University of the Free State
Bloemfontein

S Acho
MMedSc
Department of Medical Physics
University of the Free State
Bloemfontein

Abstract
Many different artefacts can occur
during magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), some affecting the diagnostic
quality, while others may be confused
with pathology. An artefact is a feature appearing in an image that is not
present in the original object. Artefacts can be classified as patientrelated, signal processing-dependent
and hardware (machine)-related. This
article presents an overview of MRI
artefacts and possible rectifying methods.

Introduction
Artefacts remain a problematic in
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Some affect the quality of the examination, while others may be confused

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with pathology.
An artefact is a feature appearing
in an image that is not present in the
original object. Depending on their
origin, artefacts are typically classified
as patient-related, signal processingdependent and hardware (machine)related.
It is important to recognise these
artefacts and have a basic understanding of their origin, especially those
mimicking pathology. In this article
emphasis is placed on recognition of
artefacts and possible rectifying methods.

the phase-encoding direction.

Periodic movements such as cardiac movement and blood vessel or
CSF pulsation cause ghost images,
while non-periodic movement causes
diffuse image noise (Fig. 1). Ghost
image intensity increases with amplitude of movement and the signal
intensity from the moving tissue.
Several methods can be used to
reduce motion artefacts, including
patient immobilisation,1 cardiac and
respiratory gating,2 signal suppression
of the tissue causing the artefact,1
choosing the shorter dimension of the
matrix as the phase-encoding direction, view-ordering or phase-reordering methods3 and swapping phaseand frequency-encoding directions1 to
move the artefact out of the field of
interest.

Patient-related
MR artefacts
Motion artefacts
Motion is one of the most common artefacts in MR imaging, causing
either ghost images or diffuse image
noise in the phase-encoding direction.
The reason for mainly affecting data
sampling in the phase-encoding
direction is the significant difference
in the time of acquisition in the frequency- and phase-encoding directions. Frequency-encoding sampling
in all the rows of the matrix (128, 256
or 512) takes place during a single
echo (milliseconds). Phase-encoded
sampling takes several seconds, or
even minutes, owing to the collection
of all the k-space lines to enable
Fourier analysis. Major physiological
movements are of millisecond to seconds duration and thus too slow to
affect frequency-encoded sampling,
but they have a pronounced effect in

SA JOURNAL OF RADIOLOGY August 2004

Fig. 1. Motion artefact (T1 coronal study of lumbar

vertebrae).

Flow
Flow can manifest as either altered
intravascular signal (flow enhancement or flow-related signal loss), or
flow-related artefacts (ghost images or
spatial misregistration).
Flow enhancement, also known as
inflow effect, is caused by fully magnetised protons entering the imaged slice
while the stationary protons have not
fully regained their magnetisation.

REVIEW ARTICLE
The fully magnetised protons yield a
high signal in comparison with the
rest of the surroundings.
High velocity flow causes the protons entering the image to be removed
from it by the time the 180-degree
pulse is administered. The effect is
that these protons do not contribute
to the echo and are registered as a signal void or flow-related signal loss
(Fig. 2).
Spatial misregistration manifests
as displacement of an intravascular
signal owing to position encoding of a
voxel in the phase direction preceding
frequency encoding by time TE/2. The
intensity of the artefact is dependent
on the signal intensity from the vessel,
and is less apparent with increased TE.

Fig. 2. Flow-related signal loss in the carotid and

basillary arteries (T2 axial study of the brain).

spinal hardware and other orthopaedic devices. Manifestation of these

artefacts is variable, including total
signal loss, peripheral high signal and
image distortion (Figs 3 and 4).
Reduction of these artefacts can be
attempted by orientating the long axis
of an implant or device parallel to the
long axis of the external magnetic
field, possible with mobile extremity
imaging and an open magnet.5,6
Further methods used are choosing
the appropriate frequency encoding
direction, since metal artefacts are
most pronounced in this direction,4
using smaller voxel sizes,5 fast imaging
sequences,6 increased readout bandwidth5,6 and avoiding gradient-echo
imaging when metal is present.5 A
technique called MARS (metal artefact reduction sequence) applies an
additional gradient, along the slice
select gradient at the time the frequency encoding gradient is applied.5

Signal processingdependent
artefacts
The ways in which the data are
sampled, processed and mapped out
on the image matrix manifest these
artefacts.

Chemical shift artefact

Chemical shift artefact occurs at
the fat/water interface in the phase
encoding or section-select directions
(Fig. 5). These artefacts arise due to
the difference in resonance of protons
as a result of their micromagnetic
environment. The protons of fat resonate at a slightly lower frequency
than those of water. High field
strength magnets are particularly susceptible to this artefact.7
Determination of the artefact can
be made by swapping the phase- and
frequency-encoding gradients and
examining the resultant shift (if any)
of the tissues.

Metal artefacts
Metal artefacts occur at interfaces
of tissues with different magnetic susceptibilities, which cause local magnetic fields to distort the external
magnetic field. This distortion
changes the precession frequency in
the tissue leading to spatial mismapping of information. The degree of
distortion depends on the type of
metal (stainless steel having a greater
distorting effect than titanium alloy),4
the type of interface (most striking
effect at soft tissue-metal interfaces),
pulse sequence and imaging parameters.
Metal artefacts are caused by external ferromagnetics such as cobalt
containing make-up, or internal ferromagnetics such as surgical clips,

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Fig. 5. Chemical shift artefact: bright and dark

streaks around the kidneys in an axial gradientecho opposed-phase image (acknowledgement
GE Health Care).

Partial volume

Figs 3 and 4. Metal-related artefacts.

SA JOURNAL OF RADIOLOGY August 2004

Partial volume artefacts arise from

the size of the voxel over which the
signal is averaged. Objects smaller
than the voxel dimensions lose their
identity, and loss of detail and spatial
resolution occurs. Reduction of these
artifacts is accomplished by using a
smaller pixel size and/or a smaller slice
thickness.

REVIEW ARTICLE
Machine/hardware-related
artefacts

Wrap around
This artefact is a result of mismapping of anatomy that lies outside the
field of view but within the slice volume. The selected field of view is
smaller than the size of the imaged
object. The anatomy is usually displaced to the opposite side of the
image (Figs 6 and 7). It can be caused
by non-linear gradients or by undersampling of the frequencies contained
within the return signal.
The sampling rate must be twice
the maximal frequency that occurs in
the object (Nyquist sampling limit). If
not, the Fourier transform will assign
very low values to the frequency signals greater than the Nyquist limit.
These frequencies will then wrap
around to the opposite side of the
image, masquerading as low-frequency signals. In the frequency encode
direction a filter can be applied to the
acquired signal to eliminate frequencies greater than the Nyquist frequency. In the phase encode direction, artefacts can be reduced by an increasing
number of phase encode steps
(increased image time). For correction, a larger field of view may be chosen.

Gibbs phenomenon (ringing artefact)

This is caused by the under-sampling of high spatial frequencies at
sharp boundaries in the image.8,9 Lack
of appropriate high-frequency components leads to an oscillation at a
sharp transition known as a ringing
artefact. The artefact occurs near the
sharp boundaries, where high contrast transitions in the object occur. It
appears as multiple, regularly spaced
parallel bands of alternating bright
and dark signal that slowly fade with

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This is a wide, still expanding subject and should be discussed separately.

Only a few common artefacts that
should be recognised are mentioned.
When in doubt, however, a technician
should be consulted.

Radiofrequency (RF) quadrature13

Figs 6 and 7. Wrap around artefacts.

distance (Fig. 8). Ringing artefacts are

more prominent in smaller digital
matrix sizes.
Methods employed to correct
Gibbs artefact include filtering the Kspace data prior to Fourier transform,
increasing the matrix size for a given
field of view, the Gegenbauer reconstruction and Bayesian approach.10-12

Fig. 8. Gibbs artefact (T1 sagittal study of the

brain).

SA JOURNAL OF RADIOLOGY August 2004

RF detection circuit failure arises

from improper detector channel
operation. Fourier-transformed data
display a bright spot in the centre of
the image. If one channel of the detector has a higher gain than the other it
will result in object ghosting in the
image. This is the result of a hardware
failure and must be addressed by a
service representative.

External magnetic field (B0)

inhomogeneity14
B0 inhomogeneity leads to mismapping of tissues. Inhomogeneous
external magnetic field causes either
spatial, intensity, or both distortions.
Intensity distortion occurs when the
field in a location is greater or less than
in the rest of the imaged object
(Fig. 9). Spatial distortion results
from long-range field gradients,

Fig. 9. B0 inhomogeneity: intensity distortion

across a T1 axial study of the lumbar vertebrae.

REVIEW ARTICLE
which remain constant in the inhomogeneous field.

Gradient field artefacts

(B1 inhomogeneity)15
Magnetic field gradients are used
to spatially encode the location of signals from excited protons within the
volume being imaged. The slice select
gradient defines the volume (slice).
Phase- and frequency-encoding gradients provide the information in the
other two dimensions. Any deviation
in the gradient would be represented
as a distortion.
As the distance increases from the
centre of the applied gradient, loss of
field strength occurs at the periphery.
Anatomical compression occurs and
is especially pronounced on coronal
and sagittal imaging.
When the phase-encoding gradient is different, the width or height of
the voxel are different, resulting in distortion. Anatomical proportions are
compressed along one or the other
axis. Square pixels (and voxels) should
be obtained.
Ideally the phase gradient should
be assigned to the smaller dimension
of the object and the frequency gradient to the larger dimension. In practice this is not always possible because
of the necessity of displacing motion
artefacts.
This may be corrected by reducing
the field of view, by lowering the gradient field strength or by decreasing
the frequency bandwidth of radio signal. If correction is not achieved, the
cause might be either a damaged gradient coil or an abnormal current
passing through the gradient coil.

RF inhomogeneity15
Variation in intensity across the
image may be due to the failure of the

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RF coil, non-uniform B1 field, nonuniform sensitivity of the receive only

coil (spaces between wire in the coil,
uneven distribution of wire), or presence of non-ferromagnetic material in
the imaged object.

Asymmetrical brightness14
There is a uniform decrease in signal intensity along the frequencyencoding axis. Signal drop-off is due
to filters that are too tight about the
signal band. Some of the signal generated by the imaged section is, thereby,
inappropriately rejected. A similar
artefact may be caused by non-uniformity in slice thickness.

RF noise14,15
RF pulses and precessional frequencies of MRI instruments occupy the same frequency bandwidth
as common sources such as TV,
radio, fluorescent lights and computers.
Stray RF signals can cause various artefacts. Narrow-band noise is
projected perpendicular to the frequency-encoding direction. Broadband noise disrupts the image over
a much larger area. Appropriate site
planning, proper installation and
RF shielding (Faraday cage) eliminate stray RF interference.
Zero line and star artefacts. A
bright linear signal in a dashed pattern that decreases in intensity
across the screen and can occur as a
line or star pattern, depending on
the position of the patient in the
phase-frequency space.
Zero line and star artefacts are
due to system noise or any cause of
RF pollution within the room
(Faraday cage). If this pattern persists, check for sources of system
noise such as bad electronics or

SA JOURNAL OF RADIOLOGY August 2004

alternating current line noise, loose

connections to surface coils, or any
source of RF pollution. If a star pattern is encountered, the manufacturer should readjust the system
software so that the image is moved
off the zero point.
Stars/zippers. Although less
common, stars/zippers are bands
through the image centre due to an
imperfect Faraday cage, with RF
pollution in, but originating from
outside, the cage.
Residual free induction decay
stimulated echo also causes
stars/zippers.

RF tip angle inhomogeneity15

These are patchy areas of
increased or decreased signal intensity. This artefact is produced by
variations in RF energy required to
tip protons 90 or 180 degrees within the selected slice volume.

Bounce point artefact15

Absence of signal from tissues of
a particular T1 value is a consequence of magnitude sensitive
reconstruction in inversion recovery imaging. When the chosen T1
equals 69% of the T1 value of a
particular tissue, a bounce point
artefact occurs.
Use phase-sensitive reconstruction inversion recovery techniques.

Surface coil artefacts

(attenuation of signal)15
Close to the surface coil the signals are very strong resulting in a
very intense image signal (Fig. 10).
Further from the coil the signal
strength drops rapidly due to the
attenuation with a loss of image
brightness and significant shading

REVIEW ARTICLE

6.

7.

8.

9.
Fig. 10. Surface coil artefact: high signal at anterior thoracic wall adjacent to surface coil.
Fig. 11. Slice-to-slice interference (T1 axial study
of lumbar vertebrae).

to the uniformity. Surface coil sensitivity intensifies problems related

to RF attenuation and RF mismatching.

Slice-to-slice interference14
Non-uniform RF energy received
by adjacent slices during a multi-slice
acquisition is due to cross-excitation
of adjacent slices with contrast loss in
reconstructed images (Fig. 11).
To overcome these interference
artefacts, include the acquisition of
two independent sets of gapped
multi-slice images, subsequently
reordered during display of the full

image set.

10.

11.

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